button to main menu   West's Guide to the Lakes, 1778/1821

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Page 38:-
of England. A.D. 1127, and was endowed with the lordship of Furness, and many royal privileges. It was peopled from the monastery of Savigny in Normandy, and dedicated to St. Mary. In ancient writings it is styled St. Marye's of Furness. The monks were of the order of Savigny, and their dress was grey cloth; but on receiving St. Bernard's form, they changed from grey to white, and became Cistercians; and such they remained till the dissolution of the monasteries.
The situation of this abbey, so favourable to a contemplative life, justifies the choice of the first settlers. Such a sequestered site, in the bottom of a deep dell, through which a hasty brook rolls its murmuring stream, and along which the roaring west wind would often blow, joined with the deep-toned matin song, must have been very favourable to the solemn melancholy of a monastic life.
To prevent surprise, and call in assistance, a beacon was placed on the crown of an eminence that rises immediately from the Abbey, and is seen all over Low-Furness. The door leading to the beacon is still remaining in the inclosure-wall, on the eastern side. The magnitude of the Abbey may be known from the dimensions of the ruins; and enough is standing to show the style of the architec-
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